Hecuba
Hecuba comes from royal stock. Her parents are king and queen of Phrygia, and she married well; she and her husband, Priam, rule Troy. However, now that Troy has fallen, she is enslaved by the Greeks, forced into the service of famed Greek general Odysseus.
Despite her own precarious situation, Hecuba still has the good of the Trojan kingdom as her first priority. She devises a plan, telling her daughter-in-law, Andromache, to comply with the wishes of her new lord, to whom she has been given as a concubine. Hecuba believes that if she is compliant than he may allow her to raise her son in safety, and as he nears adulthood he can rise up against the Greeks and become the savior of Troy. This plan is thwarted when it is revealed that her grandson is to be killed. Hecuba also loses her own children: with the exception of Kassandra, all of them are killed by the Greeks.
Hecuba spends the majority of the play in bitterness directed against Helen, whose ill-advised plan to vanquish the Greeks backfired and led to the loss of Troy. Because of this anger, she warns Menelaus that although Helen seems loyal and subservient to him now, she is just using her beauty to trick him, and will doubtlessly betray him once again if he gives her the chance.
Ultimately, Hecuba decides that death is preferable to enslavement to the Greeks, and she attempts to burn herself to death by diving into the flames of the ruins of Troy. However, she is dragged back and sent to Odysseus, to whom she has been promised.
Kassandra
Kassandra is Hecuba's daughter, and she is already slowly going mad when we meet her in the play. The source of her madness is a curse that she has been placed under which enables her to see into the future, but prevents her from convincing anyone else that her visions and predictions are true. She is able to foresee her own death—she predicts that the wife of her new master, Agamemnon, will kill her out of jealousy—but cannot prevent it and therefore goes to her fate without being able to use her knowledge of the future to escape from it. Her fate is also tragic because she was a committed virgin in the service of Apollo, but now she is forced to lose that purity.
Andromache
Andromache is Hecuba's daughter-in-law and the mother of the only remaining heir to the throne of Troy. For this reason, Hecuba urges her to be loyal and compliant to the man who is now her master. Andromache agrees, both women hoping that she will be allowed to raise her son Astyanax to rise up against the Greeks and return Troy to its former glory and power. However, at the urging of Odysseus and the general consensus of the Greek army, the baby is to be thrown from the ruins of the Trojan battlements to his death. If Andromache gets her revenge by putting a curse on the Greek ships returning home, then her baby will be permitted no burial. She is taken from Troy as plunder for the household of Neoptolemos, son of Achilles.
Helen
Helen of Troy is the most infamous of the Trojan women primarily because of her tremendous beauty and charm. Playwright Christopher Marlowe called her "the face that launched a thousand ships." Helen of Troy is actually Helen of Sparta, previously married to the Greek King Menelaus but abducted by the Trojan prince Paris, with whom she eloped. Although initially abducted, Helen did not attempt to escape Troy, and so Menelaus found himself betrayed and cuckolded. However, when she returns to him, she haughtily claims that she was bewitched and rendered incapable of desiring an escape. She fools him despite Hecuba's scornful reaction to her story. She returns to Sparta with her husband, but he doesn't trust her and makes her travel on a ship other than her own.
King Menelaus
King Menelaus is King of Sparta, and he attacks Troy in an attempt to get his revenge on Paris, who had kidnapped his wife Helen. He decides to have Helen put to death because it is what his people want, but, as Hecuba knows, he is susceptible to her charms.
Poseidon
Poseidon, the god of the sea, is very angry about the fall of Troy. He blames the Greeks for this destruction and wants his revenge, which he will work on with Athena.
Athena
Athena is incensed because the Greeks exonerated Ajax when he dragged Trojan princess Cassandra from Athena's temple and raped her. Dishonored, Athena wants revenge. She and Poseidon conspire to destroy the Greek ships as they travel home.
Odysseus (unseen character)
Portrayed by the Trojans as deceitful and immoral, Odysseus is nonetheless a powerful Greek tactician and counselor. He devises the idea of the Trojan Horse, which helps destroy Troy. He claims Hecuba as his slave, to her immense disgust. Following the Trojan War, he will endure the trials and tribulations that form The Odyssey.
Agamemnon (unseen character)
King of Mycenae/Argos and brother of Menelaus. He helps organize the Greek troops to regain Helen, which destroys Troy. Kassandra is given to him as a concubine.
Paris Alexander (unseen character)
Hecuba and Priam's son, about whom there was a prophecy when he was born. He is sent away due to his parents' fear for Troy and raised by shepherds, but he comes into contact with the three goddesses. Choosing Aphrodite's gift of Helen, the most beautiful woman on Earth, Paris pursues her and elopes with her, thus beginning the Trojan War.
Priam (unseen character)
Hecuba's husband, killed in the battle for Troy.
Achilles (unseen character)
The powerful Greek warrior who slays Hector before the gates of Troy.
Hector (unseen character)
Priam and Hecuba's son, Andromache's husband, and Astyanax's father. A great warrior, he is nonetheless killed by Achilles while defending Troy.
